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Department of European Studies & Modern Languages, Unit Catalogue 2007/08


EU50379 English to Italian translation

Credits: 12
Level: Masters
Academic Year
Assessment: CW60EX40
Requisites:
Aims: This unit is designed to equip students with the full range of skills and techniques in translation that are required to embark on a career as a professional linguist in this particular field. The aim is to maximise each student's potential so that as many as possible of the group achieve the standard necessary for professional work.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing the unit, students should have assimilated all the principles and techniques of this area of professional work. They will therefore be able to tackle a wide range of translation assignments with confidence and success. In this respect, they should have developed an expertise that enables them to work independently to produce entirely accurate and consistent versions in the target language. Students will also have gained a comprehensive understanding of the role of translators and their relationship with a particular client or end-user. They will thus know how to meet the expectations of the latter and be able to deal competently with all the various practical issues that these entail.
Skills:
The main intellectual skill developed in this unit is the ability to make the kind of linguistic judgements that will produce a satisfactory end product for the client. By applying this in practice, students are able to build up the expertise required for professional work. Translation is an exercise in communication that involves transferable key skills such as written expression, self-direction and an awareness of one's own performance, as well as IT and information retrieval abilities. These skills are developed gradually through classwork, marked assignments and constructive feedback.
Content:
This unit adopts a practical approach to translation, using materials of an increasingly challenging nature. These will be selected with the specific needs of the translation market in mind; the balance between business, scientific, political, social, economic and legal texts will be tailored to this particular language combination. During this process, the following issues, in particular, will be addressed and discussed:
* the practical principles to be applied to translation work in general;
* the intended end-user of the text and the kind of style/register that is involved;
* the reference tools or sources that could be used;
* where to look for guidance on translation and/or language issues;
* how to organise working processes so as to produce the best possible translation in the time available;
* how to ensure consistency in translation, use of language and presentation.